RX

I’m still at my mother’s in Florida;  her surgery went very well (“…it was a mess in there…” her surgeon) and she has been progressing very well with her rehab – especially now that she is no longer resident in the hell hole otherwise known as a “rehab facility”.

Note to all:  if you or a loved one need rehab, give serious consideration to doing so as an out-patient;  I’ve intimate experience with two different facilities now and, while one was infinitely better than the other, both were awful, humiliating, unnecessarily draconian-rules-laden (I mostly blame insurance companies), boring as curse-word for fornication, frustrating, anger-making places.  Avoid at all costs.

And by everything that is or might be considered holy, make sure you have a patient advocate if you ever find yourself trapped in one of these gulags.

Side Note:  someone ought to do a study on the negative impact on health caused by the environment of such places.

Meanwhile, I am now going through the “could last several weeks” tail-end charlie after-effects of the flu…a persistent cough caused by sinus drainage and waves of “gotta go lay down for a bit”.  I’ve got two weeks before Boskone and am hoping most, if not all of these symptoms will be gone by then.

Yes, I forgot to get my vaccine this year…big mistake, especially considering that no, I’m not as young as I once was and yes, age is a factor in fighting off these kinds of things.

Other personal things:  Bo, the Wonder Dog, (who I miss far more than I expected to) is doing very well at the vet’s.  It has been determined that, yes indeed, Steve was right and he is suffering from allergies – “dust and storage mite” allergies to be specific.  He’ll be undergoing a course of desensitizing.  We all know about dust mites but…storage mites?  Never heard of them before.

Yuck!

These critters live on and around dry pet food, and can also be found co-habiting with ye olde commone (ewwwww) duste mite.  Bo’s dry food is stored high and dry, but an article I read notes that during a study, two brands of dry dog food arrived already containing mites.  So…sealed plastic containers from now on.  (Just writing this is making my skin crawl)

Complaint department.  Florida, get you weather act together.  I was hoping for at least some temporary relief from my arthritis with this visit to warmer climes but nooooo;  it has rained every day but one since I’ve been down here and has barely made it into the low 70s on just a couple of occasions.  This morning looks to be one of those days when ALL of my joints “go off” as I put it…achy, sensitive if not painful to the touch.  Finger joints, wrists, ankles, knees, elbows, lower back, hips.  Throb, throb, throb, ouch.  Oddly, my toe knuckles have never bothered me.

It’s not a big deal;  they’re not so painful that I can’t function or even ignore it most of the time, but since we seem to be on a medical issues kick this morning, what the heck.

Speculation Department:  I was thinking about Toxoplasmosis the other day – the so-called cat lady virus – and how it affects rodent brains and may affect human brains.  In terms of the latter, it has been suggested that infection with the virus (which is otherwise benign in most cases) may lead people to engage in greater risk-taking behaviors.

This got me thinking along the following lines:  if one virus can alter behavior in such a way, what if most of our behaviors are or were influenced by other virus strains?  Which led to this thought:  what if it turns out that our self-awareness (which, quite frankly, I’m not sure isn’t a sham – go parse that one) is owing to viral infection?

And with that happy thought I bid you all adieu until next week.  (Try not to think of mites when you lay yourself down to sleep tonight.)